Engineering skills, not machinery, will decide Bangladesh textile margins

Bangladesh's textile sector has spent heavily on modern machinery and production capacity, but the payback now depends on engineering skill rather than new equipment, according to Engr. ASM Hafizur Rahman Nixon, Secretary General of the Institution of Textile Engineers and Technologists (ITET).

In an interview with Textile Today, Nixon said factories running identical machinery can post very different results. "Two factories with similar machinery can achieve very different results because of differences in process control, engineering skills, maintenance practices, energy management, and production planning," he said.

His argument carries weight for sourcing teams watching Bangladesh's cost position. Nixon framed the shift plainly: the industry must move from a machine-centered approach to an engineering-led one, using data to find losses, applying scientific methods to production problems, and lifting overall equipment effectiveness. "Engineering capability is what converts investment into productivity, quality, and profit," he said.

Where are the efficiency gains hiding?

Nixon located the biggest opportunities in process losses, machine utilisation, energy and water consumption, and production planning. The fixes differ by tier:

• Spinning: improve yarn quality, cut waste, optimise machine settings.
• Dyeing and finishing: tighter recipe management, process control, machine loading and first-time-right production to reduce water, steam, chemicals and processing time.
• Apparel: line balancing, skill development, workflow design and real-time production monitoring to raise output without adding machines.

He also flagged cross-tier coordination between spinning, knitting, dyeing, finishing and garmenting as an under-exploited lever, noting that inefficiencies at one stage create delays, excess inventory and extra costs at another. "The quickest productivity gain often comes from eliminating existing losses rather than purchasing additional machinery," he said.

How should factories vet AI and automation?

Nixon's advice on technology adoption is disciplined: start with a defined business problem, not the tool. Before any purchase, management should set a baseline, calculate expected return and run a pilot, weighing capital cost, integration, maintenance, training, cybersecurity and technical support.

He gave concrete use cases: computer vision to detect fabric defects, digital monitoring to identify machine downtime, predictive maintenance to prevent unexpected breakdowns, and AI for process optimisation where reliable production data exists. Vendors should be measured against lower defect rates, reduced downtime, higher output per operator, lower energy use and shorter production cycles. "Technology adoption should be driven by measurable productivity gains, not by the fear of being left behind," he said.

Can engineers cut the energy bill?

Energy has become a major competitiveness factor for Bangladesh's textile industry. Gas shortages, pressure fluctuations, rising costs and dependence on alternative fuels can disrupt production and raise operating expenses, Nixon said.

He listed the engineering interventions available: systematic energy audits, improved boiler and thermal systems, condensate and heat recovery, efficient motors, variable-frequency drives, compressed-air optimisation and better process scheduling. In wet processing, controlling temperature profiles, liquor ratios, machine loading and steam consumption cuts energy while holding quality. He also named rooftop solar, energy storage where viable, and alternative energy arrangements, and urged factories to track energy per kilogram of fabric against defined targets rather than treat efficiency as a one-time cost-cutting exercise.

What does this mean for buyers and factory management?

Nixon called on management to give engineers room to lead improvement projects, test technologies and sit in strategic decisions, and he wants ITET to push industry-academia collaboration, training and professional recognition so engineers can rise into senior roles. "A textile engineer should be recognised not merely as someone who runs a production process, but as someone who can improve that process, solve complex industrial problems, and create measurable business value," he said.

For sourcing directors, the implication is direct: when auditing Bangladeshi suppliers, capacity figures alone no longer signal competitiveness — ask for energy consumption per kilogram, defect rates, downtime data and first-time-right performance, because those numbers now separate the factories that profit from the ones that merely own machines.